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THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


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5 

THE  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  MODERN  CIVILIZATION. 


THE 


ANNUAL    ADDEESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


GENERAL  UNION  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 


flj-  Since  writing  the  preceding  Address,  (lie  Secretary  of 
the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education,    and  other  leadmJ 
kducat.oms.s,   have  directed  my  attention  to   the    Com2l 
School  Speller  of  Mr  Wu.  B.  Fo,vxE  of  Boston,  and       Xe 
great  pleasure  in  expressing  my  approbation  of  its  plan  and 
execution      It  appears  to  be  a  very  valuable  work  and  ought 
to  be  carefuHy  examined  before  a  preference  is  expressed  for 
any  other  Spelling  Book.     The   BibU  Reader  and  other 
works  by  MrFowIeseem  well  calculated  to  effect  the  obS 
proposed  in  then-  publication,  and  I  would  respectfully  request 
mpartiali;  UCa"°"  '°  eXami"e   "'em   °»  «»«/2 


PHILADELPHIA. 
T.  K.  &  P.  G.  COLLINS,  PRINTERS. 

1846. 


TIIE  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  MODERN  CIVILIZATION. 


THE 


ANNUAL    ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


GENERAL  UNION  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 


DICKINSON    COLLEGE, 


CARLISLE,  PENNSYLVANIA, 


July  8,  1846. 


BY    REV.    T.   V.    MOORE, 

OF  GREENCASTLE,   PA. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
T.  K.  &  P.  G.  COLLINS,  PRINTERS. 

1846. 


Dickinson  College,  July  9th,  1846. 
Dear  Sir  : — I  am  instructed  by  the  members  of  the  General  Union 
Philosophical  Society  to  present  you  their  thanks  for  your  admirable 
address,  and  earnestly  to  solicit  a  copy  for  publication. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  H.  ALLEN, 
Rev.  T.  V.  Moore. 


Carlisle,  July  9th,  1846. 

Dear  Sir: — In  reply  to  your  polite  note  of  this  afternoon,  I  would 

say,  that  as  my  object  in  preparing  the  address  referred  to  was  to  do 

good,  if  it  shall  be  deemed  that  this  object  will  be  further  attained  by  its 

publication,  I  am  not  willing  that  any  hesitancy  I  might  feel  personally 

to  this  step,  should  prevent  me  from  complying  with  the  request  of  the 

Society. 

I  am  very  respectfully  yours,  &c, 

T.  V.  MOORE. 
Prof.  W.  H.  Allen. 


ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  of  the  General  Union  Philosophical  Society.  The 
man  who  desires  to  be  extensively  useful  to  his  generation,  must 
understand  its  necessities.  The  history  of  the  world  is  a  series  of 
problems,  having  the  dealings  of  God  and  the  nature  of  man  for 
their  factors :  and  to  each  generation  is  there  committed  for  solution 
its  own  particular  problem  in  this  sublime  analysis.  A  portion  of 
this  problem  is  assigned  to  every  individual  of  that  generation,  and 
though  it  be  but  the  part  of  a  single  unit,  yet  that  unit  is  essential 
to  the  accuracy  of  the  result.  To  each  individual  man,  therefore, 
however  humble  be  the  sphere  he  may  occupy,  the  right  discharge, 
and  therefore  the  right  knowledge  of  the  duties  of  that  sphere,  are 
important,  for  this  is  his  all,  and  is  linked  by  unseen  ties  to  facts 
that  are  wrapped  in  all  the  awful  significance  of  eternity. 

To  the  generation  that  live  and  act  in  the  age  and  land  in  the 
midst  of  which  our  lot  is  cast,  there  has  been  entrusted  one  of  the 
mightiest  problems  ever  committed  to  a  people  for  solution.  The 
mode  in  which  this  problem  is  solved  will  determine,  for  the  weal 
or  wo  of  millions,  whether  free  institutions  are  possible  in  connec- 
tion with  great  and  rapid  development  and  advancement  of  indi- 
vidual and  social  character ;  and  if  so,  what  are  the  conditions  under 
which  this  connection  can  most  advantageously  exist.  In  a  short 
time  comparatively  and  many  at  least  of  you,  gentlemen,  will  bear 
a  part  in  the  settlement  of  these  great  interests.  And  whether  your 
part  be  one  of  prominence  or  of  obscurity,  you  are  in  either  case 
bound  to  act  it  honestly  and  intelligently.  True  greatness  and 
honor  consist  not  in  the  place  which  a  man  fills,  but  in  the  way  in 
which  a  man  fills  his  place.     The  hissing  reptile  may  crawl  its 


slimy  way  to  the  eagle's  nest,  but  it  is  a  reptile  still,  while  not  the 
humblest  creature  God  has  made,  when  in  its  place, 

"  But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubims," 

and  is  essential  to  the  perfection  and  harmony  of  the  whole.  Hence, 
whatever  be  your  future  lot  in  life,  it  is  important  to  you,  that  you 
enter  it  fully  aware  of  its  demands,  and  thoroughly  prepared  to  meet 
them,  as  far  as  you  may  possess  the  ability. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  the  present  discourse,  to  present  to  you  a 
summary  of  the  characteristic  wants  and  defects  of  our  age,  the 
supply  of  which  will  constitute  in  part  your  duty.  That  such 
deficiencies  do  exist  none  but  the  ignorant  or  the  designing  will 
deny ;  and  that  the  attempt  should  be  made  to  remove  them,  none 
but  the  weak  or  the  wicked  can  doubt. 

There  is,  however,  one  characteristic  which  is  equally  prominent 
and  perilous  in  our  state  of  society,  and  to  which  the  attention  of 
the  educated  youth  of  our  land  should  be  distinctly  turned.  It  is  a 
growing  disposition  to  separate  as  far  as  possible,  Christianity  from 
our  public  and  social  life.  Whether  this  is  a  defect  or  not,  it  can 
scarcely  be  denied  that  it  is  a  characteristic  of  our  age.  Religion 
may  be  regarded  as  a  very  good  thing  perhaps  in  private,  but 
as  often  a  very  awkward  thing  in  public  life ;  a  very  necessary 
thing  with  which  to  die,  but  a  very  inconvenient  thing  often  with 
which  to  live.  It  is  viewed  as  something  whose  domain,  like 
that  of  the  travestied  Socratic  philosophy,  lies  in  the  clouds,  and 
can  never  be  brought  down  to  the  level  world  of  daily  life.  Like 
some  of  the  maxims  and  deductions  of  mathematical'  science,  its 
theorems  and  lemmas  are  regarded  as  theoretically  correct,  but  as 
utterly  incapable  of  being  practically  embodied  in  the  earthly  and 
gross  materials  with  which  men  must  work  in  civil  and  political 
life.  It  is  deemed  of  so  subtle,  impalpable  and  sensitive  a  nature 
as  to  shrink  from  all  combination  with  elements  so  rude  and  bois- 
terous, and  as  liable  to  exhale  to  heaven  its  pure  and  fragrant 
essence  in  the  attempt  at  such  an  amalgamation.  Hence,  whilst  in 
every  other  government  in  the  world,  there  has  been  a  most  formal 


and  explicit  recognition  of  some  form  of  religion,  in  the  fundamental 
laws  of  the  state,  and  in  most  of  their  solemn  public  acts,  and  the 
governing  power  held  to  be  distinctly  and  officially  bound  to  sub- 
mit to  the  principles  of  that  religion,  and  do  nothing  to  their  infrac- 
tion ;  and  whilst  in  every  other  government  of  any  importance  that 
has  ever  existed,  there  has  been  a  formal  provision  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  the  people  and  an  admission  of  their  religious  in- 
structors to  the  most  plenary  civil  rights  ;  in  our  own  it  would  be 
difficult  to  detect  in  our  fundamental  law,  and  many  of  our  most 
solemn  national  acts,  the  slightest  recognition  of  the  very  being  of 
God,  much  less  of  Christianity.  And  not  only  is  there  no  public 
support  of  the  ministers  of  religion  (which  of  course  we  would  most 
earnestly  deprecate),  but  in  many  portions  of  our  land  they  are  not 
even  permitted  to  entertain,  or  express  an  opinion  on  the  great 
topics  of  political  action,  except  at  the  peril  of  provoking  the  petty 
proscription  of  some  political  partisans,  and  a  practical  definition 
of  what  they  mean  by  freedom  of  speech  and  action.  There  is  a 
growing  disposition  on  the  part  of  infidelity  and  latitudinarianism 
fo  demand  a  suppression  of  the  few  traces  of  Christianity,  that  ap- 
pear in  our  statute  and  common  law ;  and  in  too  many  cases  a 
growing  disposition  in  our  national  and  state  legislation  to  yield  to 
these  demands.  The  adduction  of  specific  instances  of  proof  to 
these  allegations  might  be  invidious,  and  is  perhaps  unnecessary. 
It  is  only  necessary  for  any  man  to  compare  the  spirit  that  ruled 
the  colonial  legislation,  especially  that  of  the  New  England  colonies, 
and  that  which  appeared  in  the  acts  and  speeches  of  the  early 
federal  congress,  with  the  spirit  that  now  reigns  in  our  halls  of 
legislation,  national  and  state,  to  see  that  a  wonderful  change  has 
been  wrought  in  the  relation  of  religion  to  the  national  mind.  Acts 
were  then  passed,  declarations  then  made,  and  recommendations 
given,  which  would  be  as  impossible  now  as  the  establishment  of 
an  inquisition,  or  the  ordering  of  an  anto-de-fL  This  fact  we  deem 
unquestionable  in  our  national  history.  To  some  this  feature  in 
the  flow  of  our  national  life,  is  a  matter  of  congratulation.  They 
deem  it  simply  a  growing  emancipation  from  the  ghostly  tram- 
mels of  the  past,  a  more  free  and  liberal  spirit  of  national  action, 


and  a  more  expansive  growth  of  genuine  civilization.  They  believe 
that  the  point  of  separation  has  at  length  been  reached  between 
Christianity  and  national  advancement,  and  that  henceforth  they 
will  each  proceed  on  a  hyperbolic  curve  of  eternal  departure,  to  the 
great  relief  and  advancement  at  least  of  all  civil  and  political  in- 
terests. To  others  this  change  appears  as  an  ominous  retrogression, 
and  this  defect  as  fatal,  unless  sufficiently  supplied  and  compensated. 

The  question  at  issue  here  is  a  vital  one,  and  one  that  reaches  to 
the  very  foundations  of  society,  and  hence  must  be  fully  and  honestly 
met.  If  Christianity  be  either  hostile  or  indifferent  to  the  advance- 
ment of  society,  its  present  position  in  our  country  is  proper,  and 
the  sentiments  of  the  former  class  of  thinkers  correct.  But  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  be  either  essential  or  favorable  to  any  permanent  or 
legitimate  social  improvement,  then  its  present  position  is  improper, 
and  the  fears  of  the  latter  class  of  thinkers  well  grounded.  It  is  the 
duty  then  of  every  man,  and  especially  of  every  educated  man,  to 
have  his  mind  clearly  and  firmly  decided  on  this  question,  before 
entering  upon  public  life.  It  is  to  aid  you  in  this  decision  that  I 
have  selected  the  theme  of  discussion  thus  suggested,  rather  than 
any  lighter  literary  topic,  for  your  consideration  on  this  occasion. 

I  lay  aside  the  obvious  advantage,  which  I  would  possess  in  an 
a  priori  argument  from  the  assumption  of  the  divine  origin  of 
Christianity,  and  the  consequent  necessity  for  its  beneficial  influence 
on  society ;  because  it  might  be  alleged  to  be  an  unfair  assumption 
of  ground,  which  if  even  not  questionable  has  yet  been  questioned- 
I  propose  then  to  take  up  the  a  posteriori  argument,  and  carry  the 
appeal  directly  to  the  tribunal  of  history. 

I  ask  your  attention,  therefore  to  the  consideration  of  the  relation 
of  Christianity  to  modern  civilization. 

In  order  that  the  terms  of  this  proposition  may  be  clearly  fixed 
in  this  discussion,  I  would  remark  that  by  Christianity,  is  not  meant 
every  form  of  belief  and  practice  that  has  been  called  by  that  name, 
or  every  organization  that  has  been  denominated  a  Christian  church. 
To  hold  Christianity  responsible  for  every  caricature  of  its  principles 
and  every  counterfeit  of  its  form,  would  be  as  palpably  unjust,  as 
to  hold  learning  to  be  chargeable  with  every  nauseous  exhibition 


of  pedantry,  and  every  villainous  act  of  educated  cunning;  or 
liberty  to  be  accountable  for  every  ebullition  of  savage  ferocity  and 
lawless  Jacobinism.  By  Christianity  is  meant  the  religion  of  the 
Bible,  embodied  with  more  or  less  purity,  in  the  forms  of  the  Bible, 
and  continuing  to  exist  in  some  organized  form,  from  the  date  of 
its  establishment  to  the  present  time.  By  civilization  is  meant  the 
personal,  social  and  civil  advancement,  of  those  things  that  pertain 
to  the  well  being  of  the  individual,  and  the  well  being  of  the  com- 
munity. By  modern  civilization  is  meant  that  state  of  personal 
domestic  and  civil  life,  which  is  now  found  in  Europe  and  America. 
That  many  agencies  have  been  at  work  in  producing  this  complex 
result,  is  not  to  be  questioned.  From  ancient  Egypt,  Phenicia, 
Babylon,  Greece,  Rome,  Arabia,  Scythia  and  Scandinavia,  came 
forth  the  springs  that  have  swelled  and  filled  this  wide  and  rolling 
stream  of  life.  But  from  the  time  that  the  fountain  was  unsealed 
on  Calvary,  whose  pure  gushings  are  yet  to  cleanse  the  world,  the 
troubled  stream  of  European  civilization  has  had  mingled  with  it» 
the  waters  that  issued  from  this  hallowed  source.  Hence  the  ob- 
ject of  this  discussion  is  simply  to  disentangle  this  one  element  of 
the  present  form  of  civilization,  and  endeavor  to  estimate  its  inde- 
pendent and  insulated  influence,  in  the  accomplishment  of  this 
manifold  result.  If  it  can  be  exhibited  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant, if  not  the  very  prime  element  in  this  form  of  civilization, 
the  question  of  its  proper  relation  to  American  society  social  and 
civil,  will  be  of  comparatively  easy  solution. 

It  cannot  surely  be  a  matter  of  surprise  to  any  intelligent  mind, 
that  to  a  form  of  religious  belief  should  be  referred  an  influence  in 
producing  a  form  of  civilization.  Every  form  of  civilization  that 
has  ever  existed,  whether  Grecian,  Indian,  Chaldean  or  Egyptian, 
has  been  greatly  affected  by  the  religion  with  which  it  has  been 
connected.  Indeed  in  some  cases  where  the  form  of  society  has 
been  theocratic,  as  in  Egypt,  and  India,  religion  has  been  the  sole 
element  employed  in  the  production  of  the  existing  form  of  civiliza- 
tion. But  in  all  these  cases,  as  soon  as  the  conditions  of  society 
change,  the  form  of  religion  must  be  broken,  for  it  is  rather  a  mould 
into  which  society  is  cast,  than  a  plastic  energy  that  gives  it  vitality 


10 

and  form.  Hence  as  soon  as  any  inherent  principle  of  life  was 
infused  into  these  societies,  the  inflexible  mould  of  religion  into 
which  they  had  been  compressed,  was  shivered  to  atoms.  In  this 
respect  there  is  a  most  remarkable  difference  between  Christianity 
and  every  other  form  of  religion  that  has  ever  exerted  an  influence 
on  civilization.  It  alone  has  proved  its  ability  to  co-exist  with,  and 
influence  every  possible  form  of  society,  from  the  most  barbarous 
to  the  most  refined.  This  peculiarity  arises  from  the  fact  that  it  is 
a  plastic  power  of  life,  that  infuses  gradually  and  gently  its  own 
vitality  and  form  into  whatever  it  touches,  and  not  a  dead,  inflexi- 
ble, outer  form  that  must  break  in  pieces  with  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  society  on  which  it  is  imposed.  This  peculiarity 
makes  it  eminently  adapted  to  be  an  agent,  in  the  production  of 
that  gigantic  growth  of  civilization,  which  we  now  find  existing  in 
Europe  and  America. 

These  preliminary  postulates  being  considered,  I  propose  to  dis- 
cuss the  proposition  announced  first,  by  taking  up  Roman  civiliza- 
tion, at  the  point  where  Christianity  came  in  contact  with  it,  exhibit- 
ing those  inherent  defects  in  it  that  produced  its  destruction,  and 
showing  the  peculiar  adaption  of  Christianity  to  supply  these  de- 
fects; then  by  showing  the  actual  influence  of  Christianity  on  the 
successive  forms  of  society  that  have  issued  in  the  form  now  ex- 
isting; and  finally,  by  deducing  from  this  historical  induction,  its 
present  relation  and  future  agency  in  the  prevailing  form  of  the 
world's  civilization. 

When  Christianity  appeared  in  the  world,  the  Roman  empire  had 
reached  the  acme  of  its  splendor  and  greatness.  It  had  arisen  from 
the  great  sea,  the  fourth  form  in  the  prophet's  visions,  dark,  mysteri- 
ous, iron-teethed,  terrible;  stamping  under  foot  the  rights  of  the 
weak  and  helpless;  absorbing  with  insatiable  greed  and  startling 
rapidity,  provinces,  states  and  empires,  until  the  bannered  eagle 
that  bore  those  four  potent  initials,  S.  P.  Q.  R.,  saluted  the  sun  as 
he  wheeled  up  over  the  flashing  waters  of  the  great  Euphrates,  and 
only  bade  him  a  lingering  farewell  as  he  sunk  behind  the  cold 
and  stormy  cliffs  of  Albion.  The  world  was  prostrated  at  the  feet 
of  this  haughty  and  giant  power,  and  no  arm  was  deemed  strong 


11 

enough  to  grapple  with  its  Titanic  strength.  Rome  was  thus 
made  the  focus  of  the  world,  and  all  the  riches,  elegance,  refinement 
and  splendor  of  the  earth  were  poured  into  this  august  and  mighty 
metropolis.  The  period  in  question,  was  the  culminating  point  of 
Roman  greatness  and  magnificence.  The  temple  of  Janus  was 
closed  for  the  second  time  since  its  erection,  and  the  brilliancy  of 
intellect,  literature  and  art  that  marked  this  period,  has  made  its 
very  name  descriptive  of  the  most  polished  era  of  subsequent  na- 
tions, and  the  Augustan  age  to  stand,  by  universal  consent,  as  the 
magnificent  type  of  all  succeeding  national  splendor.  But  beneath 
this  glittering  exterior,  the  inquiring  eye  can  detect  the  elements 
of  disease  and  decay,  that  finally  caused  that  colossal  power  to  totter 
and  fall  before  the  fierce  storms  of  the  northern  forests,  with  a  crash 
that  startled  the  world. 

The  first  grand  defect  of  Roman  civilization  at  this  time,  was  the 
want  of  any  strong  and  sincere  faith  in  any  principles  of  virtue  and 
religion.  The  ancient  Roman  was  a  man  of  faith,  and  a  man  of 
virtue  according  to  his  faith,  and  hence  a  man  of  power.  Believing 
that  an  omniscient  eye  was  upon  him,  an  omnipotent  arm  around 
him,  and  an  impartial  tribunal  before  him,  he  went  right  forward 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  right,  like  the  iron  man  of  the  Faery  Queen, 
turning  not  aside  at  the  call  of  the  siren,  or  the  menace  of  the  fury, 
but  with  a  stern  and  unquailing  determination  following  the  right, 
though  he  followed  it  to  the  shades  of  Orcus,  and  the  tribunal  of 
Rhadamanthus.  It  was  this  sublime  martyr  faith  in  what  he  be- 
lieved to  be  duty  to  the  gods  and  duty  to  men,  that  made  the  ancient 
Roman  at  once  the  model  and  the  monarch  of  his  race,  and  rendered 
Roman  arms  and  Roman  policy  invincible.  The  history  of  early 
Rome,  even  through  the  fabulous  narrations  of  Livy,  is  brilliant 
with  unquestionable  proofs  of  this  fact. 

But  when  we  come  to  examine  the  Augustan  era,  we  find  a 
mournful  change  in  the  character  of  the  people.  As  in  Greece 
religion  had  degenerated  into  a  mere  love  for  the  fine  arts,  so  in 
Rome  the  only  residuum  left  of' this  ancient  religion,  was  a  species 
of  patriotism.  All  genuine  faith  in  religion  was  extinct,  so  that  the 
eloquent  and  philosophic  Cicero,  in  spite  of  his  disquisitions  in  favor 


12 

of  the  existence  of  the  gods,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  more 
than  hints  at  his  doubts  of  both,  and  openly  expresses  his  wonder 
*hat  the  augurs  could  look  each  other  in  the  face  without  laughing. 
The  rhetorical  treatise  addressed  to  Herennius  and  ascribed  to 
Cicero,  evinces  incidentally  and  unconsciously  a  corruption  of 
society  in  every  department  of  it,  that  is  even  more  startling  and 
appalling,  than  the  direct  evidences  of  depravity  set  forth  in  the 
caustic  pages  of  Horace,  Persius  and  Juvenal.  Religion  had  de- 
generated, according  to  the  nature  of  the  mind  with  which  it  dealt, 
either  into  superstition  or  infidelity,  and  the  sole  renovators  of 
society,  were  to  be  found  in  the  sty  of  Epicurus  or  the  kennel  of 
Diogenes.  There  was  no  motive  impelling  the  mass  of  society  to 
virtue  drawn  from  this  life,  for  its  only  reward  was  privation  and 
ridicule ;  and  none  drawn  from  the  life  to  come,  for  that  was  deemed 
a  fable.  Hence  passion  and  appetite  in  every  form  were  let  loose, 
in  all  their  hideous  shapes  of  brutality  and  ferocity,  without  a  check, 
but  that  of  bitter  rivalry  and  hostile  collision.  The  proofs  of  these 
allegations  present  themselves  in  sickening  and  disgusting  detail,  in 
almost  every  work  remaining  of  that  splendid  but  rotten  age.  Nor 
was  the  tendency  of  this  condition  of  society  unseen  by  philosophic 
observers.  The  pages  of  Livy,  Sallnst,  Pliny  the  Elder,  Plutarch 
and  Tacitus  evince  a  painful  sense  of  the  malady,  without  any  know- 
ledge of  the  remedy.  That  remedy  must  be  a  religion  simple 
enough  to  be  grasped  by  the  faith  of  the  poor  and  ignorant ;  lofty 
enough  to  command  the  faith  of  the  intellectual  and  learned ;  sub- 
lime enough  in  its  teachings  to  breathe  a  new  life  into  the  dying 
age  ;  pure  enough  in  its  requisitions  to  cleanse  the  lilthiness  of  this 
huge  Augean  stable  ;  and  strong  enough  in  its  hopes  and  influences 
to  exorcise  the  unclean  spirits,  whose  name  was  Legion ;  and  such 
a  religion  alone  was  found  in  Christianity. 

Another  serious  and  fatal  defect  in  this  civilization,  was  the  social 
position  of  woman,  and  the  domestic  relations  of  society.  The 
family  is  the  fountain  of  civilization,  and  woman  is  the  tutelary 
spirit  of  the  family.  It  is  in  the  household  that  the  purest  and 
holiest  affections  take  their  earliest  rise,  and  around  the  household 
that  they  will  cling  and  twine  with  their  longest  and  fondest  attach- 


13 

ment.  It  is  in  the  sweet  influences  of  family  scenes,  and  family 
affections,  that  those  pure  and  vestal  principles  of  noble  acts,  are 
lit  in  the  secret  shrines  of  the  human  heart,  that  are  the  last  to  be 
quenched  in  the  career  of  vice,  and  that  often,  casting  their  high  and 
starry  brightness  on  the  troubled  sea  of  ambition,  debauchery  and 
despair,  gently  lure  the  wayward  and  weary  voyager  back  to  the 
calm  and  peaceful  track  that  leads  to  the  happy  isles  of  the  blest. 
"  The  child  is  the  father  of  the  man  ;"  and  the  mother  is  the  mould- 
ing architect  that  forms  the  child.  Let  the  homestead  be  a  place  of 
pure  and  holy  breathings,  embosomed  in  an  atmosphere  of  virtue 
and  truth ;  and  the  young  heart  will  drink  in  their  sunny  influences 
like  the  opening  flower,  and  develop  them  in  the  rich  foliage  and 
clustering  fruit  of  purpling  maturity  and  green  old  age.  Hence  a 
nation's  households  embosom  a  nation's  destiny. 

When  we  look  at  Rome  in  the  high  and  palmy  days  of  her  pros- 
perity, we  find  that  although  her  households  were  never  to  be  com- 
pared with  a  Christian  home,  or  her  wives  and  mothers  with  Chris- 
tian matrons,  yet  she  possessed  many  such  wives  as  Lucretia,  and 
many  such  mothers  as  Cornelia.  But  at  the  period  under  discussion 
corruption  the  most  loathsome  and  festering  had  reached  the  house- 
holds of  Rome,  and  poisoned  society  at  its  very  fountain.  It  is  a 
significant  fact,  that  of  all  the  touching  and  beautiful  pictures  given 
us,  in  the  undying  literature  of  this  period,  there  occur  so  few  de- 
lineations of  the  domestic  affections;  so  few  recognitions  of  any- 
thing like  a  home;  so  few  of  those  artless  touches  of  deep  and 
thrilling  emotion  that  cause  the  eye  to  glisten,  and  the  heart  to  swell 
over  pages  of  a  Burns,  a  Wilson,  or  an  Irving.  On  the  contrary,  in 
the  pages  of  Juvenal  and  Horace,  and  especially  of  Tacitus,  we 
have  some  pictures  of  Roman  homes,  sketched  in  colors  so  ghastly 
and  horrible,  that  the  pencil  seems  dipped  in  the  lurid  flames  of  the 
pit.  Licentiousness,  jealousy,  discord  and  hate;  plots  of  husband 
against  wife,  and  wife  against  husband;  mothers  sacrificing  their 
own  children,  to  their  shameless  and  horrible  lusts;  divorces  suc- 
ceeding divorces  with  disgusting  frequency  ;  and  in  default  of  these 
the  dagger  or  the  poisoned  bowl,  made  the  ready  pander  to  brutal 
appetites;  murder,  perjury,  suicide,  robbery  and  incest;  these  are 


14 

the  elements  composing  these  horrible  pictures.  In  the  later  days  of 
the  empire,  marriage  was  deemed  a  degrading  yoke,  and  children 
a  curse;  the  wife  was  a  mere  slave,  and  learning,  and  cultivation 
of  mind  deemed  only  proper  for  the  courtezan.  Hence  there  was 
needed,  that  effeminacy  should  not  lead  to  utter  extinction,  some 
agency  that  would  purify  the  domestic  relations ;  cause  husband 
and  wife,  and  parent  and  child,  to  regard  each  other  with  suitable 
affection ;  and  lift  the  wife,  the  mother,  the  sister  and  the  daughter 
to  their  proper  position,  as  the  golden  links  that  sweetly  and  softly 
bind  into  one  the  jarring  elements  of  society.  Such  an  agency  was 
Christianity,  the  only  religion  on  earth  that  raises  woman  to  her 
proper  position,  and  thus  creates  a  home. 

Another  serious  defect  was  the  gradual  decrease  of  a  hardy, 
robust,  industrious  middle  class  in  Roman  society,  having  an  interest 
in  maintaining  her  institutions  in  peace,  and  defending  them  in  war. 
The  importance  of  such  a  class  in  every  government,  is  too  mani- 
fest to  require  a  moment's  remark.  No  good  government  can  exist 
without  it.  It  is  true  we  do  not  find  in  any  ancient  government,  a 
body  of  men  corresponding  to  the  vast  middle  class  of  modern 
society,  the  mighty  tiers  elat,  who  are  now  the  real  rulers  of  the 
world.  But  in  ancient  Rome  we  find  perhaps  a  nearer  approach 
to  this  class,  than  we  do  in  any  other  community,  except  the  He- 
brew commonwealth  under  the  judges  and  early  kings.  The  hardy- 
yeomanry  of  Latium,  whose  nerves  and  muscles  were  strung  by 
agricultural  toil,  manly  exercise  and  virtuous  habits,  were  thus  fitted 
to  put  on  the  massive  armor  of  the  legionary,  and  go  forth  to  the  con- 
quest of  the  world.  But  when  in  the  third  and  fourth  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  the  fierce  barbaric  hordes  came  down  like  the  vulture 
on  his  prey,  we  look  in  vain  for  this  class.  They  are  extinct.  The 
rich  fields  that  once  stretched  along  the  Alps  and  Apennines,  are 
deserted  and  barren,  and  the  place  that  their  hardy  cultivators  once 
occupied  in  the  armies  filled  by  the  rude  Dacian,  the  fierce  Hun, 
and  the  barbaric  Goth.  Hence  when  these  hired  defenders  chose 
to  grasp  the  rich  prize  they  had  hitherto  protected,  there  was  no 
force  adequate  to  resist  them.  What  then  produced  this  strange 
and  fatal  destruction  of  so  important  a  class  of  men,  and  thus  the 


15 

destruction  of  the  empire?     We  find  all  the  causes  at  work  during 
the  Augustan  age. 

The  first  was  the  gratuitous  distribution  by  the  government  to 
the  people  first  of  grain,  then  of  bread,  and  finally  of  every  neces- 
sary of  life.  These  staples  of  subsistence  were  drawn  from  the  rich 
and  conquered  provinces  of  Egypt,  Lybia  and  Sicily,  which  by 
reason  of  their  superior  advantages  of  soil  and  climate,  were  able 
to  undersell  the  Italian  agriculturists,  and  thus  drive  them  from  the 
market.  Discouraging  native  agriculture,  and  paying  a  premium 
to  idleness,  by  this  gratuitous  distribution,  we  find  that  at  this  very 
period,  Cicero  testifies  that  not  more  than  2000  citizens,  out  of  the 
vast  population  of  Rome,  possessed  the  means  of  independent  sub- 
sistence. Hence  the  race  of  agriculturists  gradually  withdrew  from 
this  unequal  and  bootless  contest,  and  forsaking  their  fields,  became 
lost  in  the  needy  crowd  of  hungry  retainers  in  tlie  city.  As  the 
barbarians  began  to  make  their  pillaging  incursions,  the  frontier 
districts  became  insecure,  and  were  therefore  gradually  abandoned. 
But  by  the  absurd  municipal  regulations  of  Rome,  the  amount  of 
tax  levied  on  these  provinces  remained  precisely  what  it  was  when 
they  were  populous  and  flourishing.  Hence  as  the  population  de- 
creased, and  the  rewards  of  labor  diminished,  while  the  tax  required 
from  each  province  remained  the  same,  it  soon  required  all  the  labor 
of  the  husbandman  to  meet  the  enormous  and  increasing  burden  of 
taxation  that  fell  to  his  share.  This  insane  policy  tended  to  depop- 
ulate entirely  the  agricultural  districts,  and  destroy  their  hardy, 
rural,  industrial  population  on  which  the  state  had  once  so  much 
depended. 

Another  cause  of  the  disappearance  of  this  middle  class  of  society, 
was  the  enormous  increase  of  the  slave  population.  By  reason  of 
the  numerous  captives  taken  in  war,  and  the  natural  increase  of  the 
slaves,  they  at  last  numbered  from  50  to  60,000,000  of  souls,  and 
single  families  in  Rome  possessed  from  20  to  30,000.  Labor  thus 
became  cheap  and  degrading,  and  the  laboring  class  of  freemen 
gradually  disappeared.  An  enormous  drain  was  made  on  the  re- 
sources of  the  republic,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  slave  population, 
and  in  consequence  of  their  cruel  treatment,  a  hardy  and  powerful 


16 

race  was  created  burdensome  to  the  commonwealth,  yet  bitterly 
hostile  to  its  interests.  The  natural  result  of  this  process  was  seen 
in  the  invasion  of  Rome  by  Alaric,  when  40,000  slaves  joined  him 
in  a  body,  and  became  his  most  desperate  and  ferocious  soldiers. 

There  was  therefore  needed  an  agency  that  would  remove  these 
monstrous  inequalities  of  society,  and  give  to  honest  labor  its  proper 
dignity,  and  that  agency  was  found  alone  in  the  religion  that  de- 
clared, "  he  that  will  not  work  shall  not  eat." 

The  last  serious  defect  that  we  notice,  is  the  want  of  any  proper 
feelings  of  common  humanity.  The  very  etymology  of  the  word 
humanity,  suggests  the  social  and  political  importance  of  the  feel- 
ings included  in  the  term.  A  nation  that  lacks  these  feelings,  not 
only  falls  short  of  the  proper  standard  of  civilization,  but  ultimately 
procures  its  own  destruction  by  one  of  the  inevitable  laws  of  provi- 
dence. It  is  true  a  Roman  audience  could  rise  up  in  admiration  of 
that  noble  expression  of  human  brotherhood  "  homo  sum,  et  nil 
humani  a  me  alienum  puto"  but  it  is  also  true,  that  this  same 
audience,  perhaps,  could  the  next  hour  raise  a  shout  of  equal  ap- 
plause over  the  shrieking  victim,  writhing  in  the  jaws  of  wild 
beasts,  or  the  bleeding  form  of  the  dying  gladiator.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  wretched  combatants  were  sometimes  brought  forward  at 
a  single  gladiatorial  show,  to  glut  that  savage  and  cowardly  thirst 
for  cruelty  and  blood,  that  only  grew  with  its  gratification.  When 
to  this  we  add  the  brutal  treatment  received  by  the  sickly  infant ; 
the  decrepit  parent;  the  hapless  victim  of  disease  and  accident; 
the  wounded  soldier;  the  captive  foe  and  the  miserable  slave  ;  we 
see  a  savage  ferocity  that  provoked  the  vengeance  of  both  God  and 
man,  and  that  it  might  not  work  the  utter  ruin  of  the  society  that 
harbored  it,  required  for  its  cure  a  religion  that  delighted  not  in 
blood ;  whose  spirit  was  love,  and  whose  model  him  that  cried, 
"  Father  forgive  them,  they  know  not  what  they  do."  We  see  from 
this  rapid  sketch  of  the  defects  of  Roman  civilization,  there  was 
ample  scope  for  the  exertion  of  the  peculiar  influences  of  Christian- 
ity; that  the  very  causes  that  produced  the  downfall  of  this  mighty 
power,  were  directly  antagonistic  to  the  whole  spirit  and  temper  of 
Christianity ;  and  that  hence  if  it  exerted  any  influence  at  all  on 


17 


society,  that  influence  must  be  adverse  to  these  causes  of  ruin,  and 
therefore  conservative  and  salutary.  But  it  was  impossible  for  any- 
thing short  of  a  miracle  to  arrest  the  downfall  of  the  existing  form 
of  the  Roman  empire.  It  had  passed  from  the  budding  vigor  of  its 
wolf-nursed  youth,  through  the  crowned  and  imperial  strength  of 
an  iron  maturity,  to  the  driveling  dotage  of  an  effete  and  corrupt 
old  age.  Christianity  might  retard  its  dissolution,  but  possessed  no 
Medean  charm,  or  elixir  of  immortality  to  bring  the  vigor  of  youth 
back  to  its  tottering  frame.  The  doom  of  destiny  was  upon  it,  and 
it  must  go  down  to  the  grave. 

Hence  we  are  to  look  for  the  legitimate  influences  of  Christianity, 
not  so  much  in  the  worn-out  and  rotten  framework  of  Roman 
power,  as  in  the  elements  of  society  that  necessarily  remained  to 
form  a  new  organization.  We  turn  then  to  examine  the  extent  to 
which  Christianity  fulfilled  the  high  mission  to  which  it  was  called 
as  the  regenerating  agent  of  European  society.  We  are  aware  that 
there  were  other*influences  at  work,  but  we  do  not  hazard  too  much 
in  saying,  that  whilst  any  of  these  influences  might  have  been 
spared,  all  combined  would  have  been  powerless  without  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  therefore  that  it  alone  is  the  prime,  indispensable  and 
essential  element  of  European  and  American  civilization. 

European  history  may,  for  our  present  purpose,  be  divided  into 
five  periods,  sufficiently  designated  as,  the  Imperial,  the  Barbarian, 
the  Feudal,  the  Transition  and  the  Reformed.  Let  us  trace  the  re- 
lation of  Christianity  to  civilization  during  these  successive  periods. 

During  the  first  period  its  influence  was  limited  because  of  its 
repeated  persecutions,  and  soon  after  these  persecutions  ceased  by 
the  civil  establishment  of  Christianity,  the  imperial  form  of  society 
was  broken  to  pieces.  But  still  its  influences  were  gradually  and 
silently  diffusing  themselves  through  society,  so  that  in  the  time  of 
Trajan  we  know  from  official  documents  that  paganism  had  greatly 
declined ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century  Tertullian 
could  exclaim,  "  We  are  but  of  yesterday,  yet  we  have  filled  your 
islands,  towns  and  burgs ;  the  camp,  the  senate  and  the  forum,  and 
every  age,  sex  and  rank  are  converts,"  and  in  A.  D.  306  it  was  en- 
throned on  the  seat  of  the  Coesars  under  Constantine.    The  Christian 


IS 


writers  of  this  period,  particularly  Justin  Martyr,  Origen,  Tertultian 
and  Lactantius,  build  their  most  triumphant  arguments  in  its  favor, 
from  the  manifest  influence  it  had  in  purifying  society. 

It  appears,  also,  from  the  Theodosian  code,  that  it  exerted  a  very 
decided  influence  in  modifying  Roman  jurisprudence.  It  abolished 
theatrical  and  gladiatorial  representations  ;  improved  the  condition 
of  slaves  and  prisoners;  limited  the  power  of  fathers  over  their 
children;  invested  woman  with  new  rights;  and  caused  more 
ample  protection  to  be  extended  to  widows  and  orphans. 

From  these  and  similar  monuments  remaining  of  this  period,  it  is 
manifest  that  the  influence  of  Christianity  was  eminently  salutary 
and  conservative,  tending  to  enable  Roman  society,  if  not  to  recover 
the  strength  of  the  living,  at  least  to  retain  one  of  the  privileges  of 
the  dying,  that  of  transmitting  to  successors  some  of  its  most  valua- 
ble possessions,  and  becoming  thus  the  civil  and  political  testator  of 
modern  society. 

When  we  approach  the  next  period,  the  Barbarian  era  of 
European  society,  we  are  met  with  a  most  wonderful  and  unex- 
ampled phenomenon  in  history.  From  the  close  of  the  first  until 
the  commencement  of  the  fifth  century,  did  those  fierce  and  fiery 
swarms,  which  had  been  roused  from  the  dark  forests  of  the 
north  by  the  spears  of  Germanicus  and  Caesar,  continue  in  retali- 
ation to  assail  their  former  invaders.  From  being  despised  and 
conquered,  they  were  first  feared,  then  deprecated,  then  bribed, 
until  at  last,  tempted  by  the  rich  and  sunny  fields  of  Italy,  and 
emboldened  by  the  cowering  weakness  of  luxurious  and  enfeebled 
Rome,  they  burst  forth  in  a  torrent  of  fire  and  steel,  and  swept  from 
the  feeble  hands  of  the  degenerate  Roman  the  trembling  sceptre  of 
the  western  world.  But  when  the  lawless  barbarian  had  broken 
down  the  outer  walls  and  battlements  of  Roman  greatness  and 
might, he  was  suddenly  confronted  by  another  power  before  whose 
awful  glance  and  majestic  mien  even  his  ferocious  heart  quailed, 
and  to  whose  high  and  unearthly  authority  even  his  proud  spirit 
succumbed.  That  power  was  Christianity,  although  coming  into 
direct  collision  with  that  proud  spirit  of  personal  independence  so 
strong  in  the  barbarian  heart;  and  although  putting  many  restraints 
on  his  wild  and  lawless  passions  that  must  have  been  irksome,  yet 


19 


such  was  the  secret  might  that  was  felt  to  reside  in  this  embodied 
form  of  a  divine  life,  corrupted  and  enfeebled  though  it  had  already 
become,  that  the  stern  and  lion-hearted  children  of  the  forest  meekly 
and  quietly  bowed  down  at  its  feet.  The  influence  of  Christianity, 
during  this  period,  was  of  incalculable  importance  to  the  succeeding 
history  of  civilization.  It  gave  a  common  bond  of  sympathy  and 
union  to  tribes  that  hitherto  had  been  hostile  and  immiscible,  in- 
capable of  being  fused  into  any  national  form.  It  taught  the  rude 
barbarian  the  majesty  of  law,  in  what  he  deemed  a  most  sacred 
and  unimpeachable  repository.  It  secured  in  his  mind  the  habit 
of  absolute  submission  to  an  authority  higher  than  mere  brute 
strength,  and  taught  him  that  first  law  of  all  civilization,  obedience 
to  a  moral  power,  by  virtue  of  a  moral  force,  and  thus  prepared  his 
wild  and  untamed  nature  for  submission  to  other  repositories  of 
power,  and  finally,  by  separating  the  temporal  and  spiritual  powers, 
it  taught  the  great  basis  truth  of  liberty  of  conscience,  that  physical 
power  has  no  right  to  coerce  the  honest  convictions  of  the  soul. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the  conservative 
influence  of  the  Christian  church  during  this  period,  the  downfall 
of  Roman  civilization,  like  that  of  Egyptian,  Assyrian  and  Grecian 
glory,  would  now  have  been  marked  only  by  such  mournful  relics 
of  perished  grandeur,  as  those  that  lie  strewed  over  the  lonely 
solitudes  of  Memphis  and  Babylon,  and  the  dead  cities  of  the  old 
and  buried  world. 

From  this  rude  and  chaotic  condition  of  society,  there  emerged  a 
new  form  of  social  existence  which,  although  imperfect  and  suscep- 
tible of  the  grossest  abuses  of  tyranny,  was  yet  perhaps  the  only 
possible  form  into  which  these  heterogeneous  materials  could  be 
moulded.  This  form  constitutes  the  Feudal  era  of  European  history, 
and  extends  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth  or  twelfth  century. 

That  the  feudal  system  had  great  and  grievous  defects,  furnishing 
no  defence  to  the  serf  against  the  capricious  tyranny  of  the  baron; 
no  fixed  system  of  law  and  government ;  no  connecting  bond  of 
society;  no  fusing  principle  of  nationality,  and  that  it  engrafted 
features  on  the  common  law  which,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  modern 
jurists,  still  continue  to  deform  it,  cannot  be  denied.     But  it  may 


20 

"fairly  be  questioned,  whether,  bad  as  it  confessedly  was,  it  was  not 
the  best  possible  system  under  the  circumstances.  Society  was  in 
a  state  of  chaotic  confusion,  and  this  system  of  nuclei  of  attraction 
was  perhaps  the  only  possible  agency  that  could  bring  these  jarring 
elements  into  a  homogeneous  whole.  It,  however,  afforded  scope 
for  the  influence  of  Christianity.  Then  first  were  its  teachings  as  to 
the  social  position  of  woman  properly  established.  Shut  up  in  his 
solitary  castle,  the  baron  was  forced  to  depend  on  his  wife  and 
children  for  sympathy  and  society  during  much  of  his  time,  and 
thus  their  legitimate  importance  and  influence  became  gradually 
felt  and  recognized.  Hence  it  is  in  the  feudal  era  that  we  begin  to 
find  the  family  and  the  home  of  modern  society.  The  priest  also 
acted  as  a  mediator  between  the  haughty  lordling  on  his  castled 
crag  and  the  dependent  serfs,  whose  huts  were  clustered  around  its 
base  j  softening  down  the  indomitable  pride  of  the  one,  and  refin- 
ing the  barbarian  rudeness  of  the  other.  But  during  this  long  and 
dark  period  of  European  history,  the  influence  of  Christianity  must 
have  been  secret  if  not  limited,  and  only  preparatory  to  those  grand 
events  that  were  again  to  break  up  the  forms  of  society,  and  pro- 
duce new  combinations. 

These  influences  began  to  develop  themselves  in  the  fourth  great 
period  of  European  history,  constituting  it  the  Transition  era  of  its 
society,  and  extending  from  the  tenth  or  twelfth,  to  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  influence  of  Christianity  is  marked  in  its  great  transi- 
tion movements. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  Crusades.  These  mighty  and  ocean- 
like movements  broke  up  the  vast  and  silent  surface  of  frozen 
Europe,  precipitating  its  shivering  and  massive  fragments  on  the 
shores  of  the  strange  and  storied  east,  but  in  its  reflux  tide  bore 
back  a  rich  freight  of  blessings.  It  enlarged  national  conceptions 
and  strengthened  national  bonds.  It  checked  the  enormous  tyranny 
of  the  feudal  system,  breaking  up  the  overgrown  fiefs,  and  bringing 
up  from  the  serfs  that  mighty  middle  class  soon  to  ascend  the  throne 
of  the  world.  It  created  free  cities  that  served  as  nurseries  for  the 
ideas  of  liberty,  that  were  one  day  to  bring  forth  fruit  more  terrible 
to  tyrants  than  the  fabled  teeth  of  Cadmus.     It  cherished  into  ex- 


21 

istence  a  commercial  spirit  in  southern  Europe,  that  evoked  with 
its  wand  of  magic  power  the  opulence  of  Genoa,  Florence,  Pisa, 
Venice,  Portugal  and  Spain.  Inasmuch  as  these  advantages  were 
all  procured  by  the  crusades,  we  owe  them  incidentally  at  least 
to  that  Christianity  without  which  the  crusades,  or  any  such  vast 
earthquake  movement  of  society,  would  have  been  utterly  im- 
possible. 

The  next  was  the  institution  of  Chivalry.  When  the  spirit  of 
romantic  adventure  aroused  by  the  crusades,  could  find  no  more 
scope  in  purging  the  holy  soil  of  the  sacrilegious  paynim,  it  de- 
manded some  other  field  of  exertion,  either  in  the  cause  of  virtue  or 
of  vice.  Fortunately  for  the  world  it  assumed  a  form  which  although 
stilted,  pompous  and  extravagant,  and  worthily  satirized  in  its  ab- 
surdities by  the  pens  of  a  Cervantes  and  a  Butler,  yet  conferred  no 
small  blessing  on  society.  It  breathed  sentiments  of  high  honor  and 
delicate  courtesy  into  men's  hearts  ;  inspired  a  disgust  and  horror  of 
perfidy  and  falsehood ;  cherished  an  uncompromising  hostility  to 
injustice;  elevated  woman  in  society;  made  her  oppression  and 
maltreatment  to  be  regarded  as  brutality  and  cowardice;  and  intro- 
duced refinement  into  the  intercourse  of  peace,  and  humanity  and 
generosity  into  the  contests  of  war.  It  is  well  known,  however, 
that  chivalry  was  closely  allied  to  Christianity,  drawing  its  laws  and 
sanctions  from  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  hallowing  its  knightly 
investitures  and  tournaments  with  religious  ceremonies,  and  thus 
aiding  to  infuse  the  principles  of  Christianity  into  the  heart  of 
society. 

During  this  period  Christianity  was  gradually  infusing  more 
justice  and  humanity  into  the  jurisprudence  of  Europe.  During 
the  barbarian  and  feudal  periods,  law  in  civil  courts  was  either  a 
chance-medley  or  a  mockery,  according  to  the  caprice  of  its  dis- 
pensers. In  ecclesiastical  courts,  however,  a  regular  system  of 
judicial  procedure  under  the  name  of  the  canon  law,  extracted 
partly  from  the  Roman  law,  and  partly  from  the  Gospel,  was  gradu- 
ally introduced  and  extended  to  all  who  were  called  clerici.  Hence 
the  phrase  "benefit  of  clergy,"  now  so  unmeaning,  was  then  fraught 
with  deep  significance,  for  to  be  tried  in  a  civil  court  was  to  be 


22 

brutally  oppressed,  or  subjected  to  a  silly  ordeal  of  fire,  water  or 
sword,  while  to  be  tried  in  an  ecclesiastical  court  was  at  least  to  be 
tried  by  law,  with  the  power  of  appeal  to  a  higher  tribunal.  The 
clergy  constantly  endeavored  to  have  the  legal  forms  of  the  canon 
law,  which  embodied  all  that  was  good  of  the  old  civil  law,  intro- 
duced into  the  feudal  courts ;  and  it  is  to  this  infusion  of  the  humane 
spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  excellent  forms  of  the  Roman  law, 
made  by  the  efforts  of  the  church,  that  we  owe  many  of  the  most 
valuable  forms  and  principles  of  the  common  law. 

Another  important  part  performed  by  Christianity,  during  this 
period,  was  its  influence  in  the  gradual  extinction  of  slavery. 
Whatever  other  agencies  were  at  work  to  accomplish  this  result, 
Christianity  must  be  regarded  as  unquestionably  the  chief  and  most 
efficient.  The  first  voice  against  the  system  was  raised  in  the 
church,  and  the  strongest  motives  impelling  to  its  overthrow  were 
drawn  from  the  free  and  equalizing  spirit  of  the  Bible.  Most  of 
the  charters  of  manumission  granted  prior  to  the  time  of  Louis  X.> 
and  Philip  the  Long,  when  slavery  was  formally  abolished  in 
France,  were  given  in  express  terms,  pro  amove  dei,  pvo  remedio 
ajiimse,  and  pvo  mevcede  animse.  In  some  of  the  laws  and  charters 
the  reasoning  is  extended  and  based  solely  on  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity. However  erroneous  logically  and  theologically,  some  of 
these  reasonings  may  be,  yet  they  furnish  indisputable  evidence  of 
the  motives  impelling  those  who  acted  on  them,  and  show  that  it  is 
to  Christianity  we  owe  chiefly  the  removal  of  that  system  of  servi- 
tude so  fatal  to  Roman  society,  and  so  deadening  and  benumbing  to 
the  energies  of  those  who,  when  freed  from  its  influence,  have  be- 
come one  of  the  most  important  classes  of  the  modern  world. 

It  is  also  in  part  to  Christianity  that  we  owe  the  gradual  destruc- 
tion of  the  barbarous  custom  of  private  war.  So  fruitful  of  evil 
was  this  custom  that  many  efforts  were  made  for  its  suppression. 
But  even  the  genius  and  power  of  Charlemagne  were  found  inade- 
quate to  the  task.  The  church  labored  first  for  its  restraint  within 
prescribed  limits  by  sacred  truces,  and  finally  for  its  entire  destruc- 
tion ;  which  was  at  length  to  the  great  benefit  of  society  in  a  great 
measure  accomplished. 


23 

The  field  of  intellect  and  learning  during  this  long  period  is  sadly 
devoid  of  interest.  But  whatever  learning  did  exist  was  found  in 
the  church.  In  the  monasteries  and  holy  places  the  relics  of  clas- 
sic lore  were  kept  safe  from  the  sweeping  ravages  of  barbarism 
and  ignorance,  which,  in  less  sacred  depositories,  were  sacrificed 
to  a  ferocious  thirst  for  indiscriminate  destruction.  While  kings, 
nobles  and  warriors  despised  learning  as  effeminate  and  degrad- 
ing, ecclesiastics  were  at  least  feebly  endeavoring  to  preserve  its 
treasures  from  entire  destruction.  And  the  scholastic  philosophy, 
which  was  solely  employed  on  the  facts  and  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
although  containing  much  that  was  frivolous  and  ridiculous,  was 
yet  the  mother  of  the  science  of  modern  times.  It  gradually  pro- 
cured the  creation  of  universities  and  colleges ;  and  thus  began  the 
great  work  of  training  the  universal  mind,  which  has  since  issued 
in  the  magnificent  apparatus  of  modern  education.  In  this  work 
Christianity  wrought  unaided.  There  is  not  a  college  or  university 
of  any  note  in  Europe,  nor  indeed  to  a  great  extent  in  America 
that  has  not  been  founded  directly  by  Christianity,  founded  as  an 
eleemosynary  institution,  and  founded  from  religious  motives. 

Hence  when  the  human  mind  was  beginning  to  awake  to  a  new 
activity  at  the  close  of  this  Transition  period,  and  was  quickened  by 
the  invention  of  printing,  the  change  of  national  and  social  relation 
produced  by  the  use  of  gunpowder  and  cannon  in  warfare ;  the 
terrible  irruption  of  the  fierce  and  turbaned  hordes  of  Tartary ;  the 
fall  of  Constantinople,  and  the  consequent  scattering  of  the  treasures 
of  Grecian  lore  there  collected;  the  discovery  of  a  new  continent 
and  a  new  passage  to  an  old  one ;  and  when  as  the  result  of  this 
universal  resurrection  of  the  intellect  of  Europe,  learning  began  to 
flourish,  most  of  its  protectors  and  patrons  prized  it  mainly  as  a 
handmaid  to  Christianity.  It  is  only  necessary  to  name  a  Roger 
Bacon,  a  Dante,  a  Wickliffe,  a  Petrarch,  a  Ximenes,  an  Erasmus, 
a  Lnther,  a  Knox  and  an  Usher:  and  the  fact  that  with  but  one 
or  two  exceptions,  the  names  found  brightest  in  the  scroll  of  literary 
glory  at  this  period  were  ecclesiastics,  to  show  the  intimate  relation 
occupied  by  Christianity  to  the  revival  of  letters. 

When  we  approach  the  last  great  period  of  European  history 


24 

the  Reformation  era,  we  enter  perhaps  the  most  august  apartment 
in  the  great  temple  of  history  that  has  ever  been  unveiled  to  the 
gaze  of  man.  Darkness  had  indeed  covered  the  earth,  and  a  slumber 
of  centuries  had  enveloped  the  world — but, 

"  From  out  that  midnight  so  dark  and  deep 
A  voice  cried,  Ho!  awaken! 
And  the  sleepers  aroused  themselves  from  sleep 
And  the  thrones  of  the  earth  were  shaken." 

The  trains  that  had  been  silently  preparing  in  the  deep  and 
slumbering  night  of  the  past,  now  flamed  out  in  a  conflagration  that 
proved  a  beacon-fire  for  the  world.  At  this  sacred  flame  have 
science,  art,  literature,  liberty,  and  civilization  in  all  its  forms,  lit 
their  ten  thousand  torches,  the  light  of  which  now  blazes  around  us. 
There  are  two  general  positions  that  embody  the  whole  argument  to 
be  drawn  from  this  period  of  history,  which  we  can  only  announce. 
The  first  is,  that  the  Reformation  is  the  one  great  fact  of  modern  civi- 
lization, the  fountain  from  which  have  flowed  its  richest  results,  and 
the  other  is,  that  Christianity  is  the  one  great  fact  of  the  Reformation, 
that  which  gave  it  most  of  its  significance  and  power.  The  fetter- 
ing despotism  of  ghostly  authority  was  broken  ;  the  barriers  that  had 
restrained  Christianity  from  coming  in  quickening  contact  with  the 
minds  of  men  were  swept  away :  and  the  unchained  energies  of  the 
human  soul  leaped  forward  like  a  torrent  in  the  career  of  improve- 
ment. Hence  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  seventeenth 
centuries  produced  more  men  of  Titanic  stature  in  mind  and  soul, 
than  have  ever  appeared  within  the  same  period  since  the  creation  ; 
and  the  colossal  monuments  of  their  labors  that  they  have  built  up  in 
the  world's  history,  remain  to  tell  to  other  times  that  there  were 
giants  in  those  days.  The  field  that  thus  opens  to  us  is  magnificent, 
but  too  wide  to  be  entered  upon  fully  at  this  stage  of  the  discussion. 

It  is  impossible  to  develop  in  detail  the  precise  channels  by  which 
Christianity  is  brought  into  influential  contact  with  the  world's 
civilization.  As  well  might  we  attempt  to  trace  the  separate  paths 
of  the  infinite  rays  of  the  sun,  in  their  passage  from  the  brightness 
of  their  home  in  the  skies,  through  the  dark  and  dripping  chambers 
of  the  earth,  and  the  mysterious  channels  of  fibre,  root  and  stem,  to 


25 

the  greenness  and  bloom  of  spring,  the  richness  and  splendor  of 
summer,  or  the  purple  glory  and  beauty  of  autumn.  The  influence 
of  Christianity  on  society  is  not  exerted  through  the  cannon  of  the 
warrior,  and  the  dispatches  of  the  statesman,  but  in  the  sweet 
breathings  of  truth  that  come  on  the  opening  petals  of  the  heart  of 
infancy,  like  spice-laden  zephyrs  from  the  land  of  the  blest;  in  the 
gentle  words  of  love  that  fall  in  dewy  freshness  on  the  wondering 
ear  of  childhood,  from  gray-haired  sires  and  sweet-voiced  matrons; 
in  the  nameless  tellings  of  high  and  holy  things,  wrapped  in  .the 
deep,  unutterable  voices  of  the  ancient  eternities,  that  come  to  the 
silent  ear  of  youth,  before  the  din  and  strife  of  the  babbling  world 
have  stunned  these  inner  senses  of  the  soul ;  in  the  longing  and 
wistful  thoughts  of  things  of  deep,  abyssmal  mystery  that  steal  into 
the  soul  in  its  lonely  musings  in  the  solitary  chamber;  in  the  deep 
hush  of  the  moaning  forest ;  in  the  awful  silence  of  the  hollow  mid- 
night ;  in  the  seasons  of  gloomy  doubt  and  frantic  effort  to  scale 
the  prison  wall  of  mystery  and  darkness  that  rises  and  closes  in 
encircling  silence  around  us ;  in  times  of  heart-sickness  and  disap- 
pointment, when  reaching  forth  the  hand  of  warm  and  confiding 
trust,  it  grasps  the  cold  and  slippery  skin  of  the  adder;  it  is  then 
that  Christianity,  with  its  wonderful  tellings  of  infinite  things,  comes 
with  apocalyptic  splendor  and  power,  and  revealing  itself  to  the 
soul,  creates  those  martyr  spirits  that  stamp  their  lineaments  on  the 
enduring  rock. 

But  without  attempting  to  dissect  influences  so  subtle,  yet  so 
powerful  as  these,  we  have  facts  sufficient  for  the  argument. 

What  Christian  state  requires  or  even  permits  the  mother  to 
cast  her  sickly  and  decrepit  child  into  the  cave  of  the  Taygetus ;  the 
child  to  forsake  the  aged  and  helpless  parent;  the  harmless  slaves 
to  be  murdered,  that  their  dying  groans  may  be  a  requiem  to  the 
shade  of  the  departed  master;  thousands  of  an  unarmed,  inoffensive 
Helot  race  to  be  massacred  in  a  single  night  to  prevent  their  undue 
increase  ;  thousands  of  men  to  be  trained  and  fattened  to  butcher 
each  other  in  gladiatorial  show,  for  the  amusement  of  a  brutal  popu- 
lace ;  captives  in  war  to  be  massacred  in  cold  blood  or  enslaved,  or 
vices  the  most  loathsome  and  horrible  to  be  canonized  and  sanc- 
tioned, not  only  by  the  laws  of  man,  but  by  the  very  laws  and 


26 

examples  of  the  gods  themselves?  Whence  these  amazing  ad- 
vances upon  ancient  civilization  ?  We  answer  from  Christianity- 
It  is  not  because  the  whole  world  has  advanced  beyond  the  civiliza- 
tion of  antiquity,  for  we  can  still  point  to  many  a  wide  land  on  the 
earth  reeking  with  cruelty  and  crime.  And  where  do  we  find  the 
highest  and  purest  form  of  civilization  ?  Where  do  we  find  the 
physical  power  and  energy  of  the  world,  the  nations  who  can  spread 
the  broad  eegis  of  their  national  protection  over  the  humblest  citizen 
in  the  most  distant  and  barbarous  land,  and  shield  him  from  harm 
by  the  talisman  of  a  name?  Where'  do  we  find  the  commerce,  the 
productive  capital,  the  growing  wealth,  the  improvements  and  dis- 
coveries in  machinery,  in  art  and  in  agriculture  ?  Where  do  we 
find  the  colleges,  the  universities  and  the  common  schools,  and  the 
instruction  of  the  minds  of  the  masses?  Where  the  profoundest 
philosophy,  the  loftiest  science,  the  finest  literature,  and  the  most 
active  intellect?  Where  are  the  hospitals,  the  asylums,  the  institu- 
tions for  the  relief  of  the  unfortunate  and  wretched  ?  Where  are 
the  constitutional  governments  of  the  world,  the  governments  where 
life,  property  and  reputation  are  most  inviolate,  where  rights  are 
most  clearly  defined,  and  liberty  most  extensively  enjoyed,  and  laws 
most  wisely  enacted  and  righteously  administered?  Where  are  the 
rights  of  the  friendless  poor,  the  widowed  mother  and  the  orphaned 
child  most  sacredly  regarded  ?  We  answer  only  in  Christian  lands. 
It  is  true  there  are  many  grievous  defects  in  these  countries,  but  we 
defy  the  subtlest  ingenuity  to  point  out  a  single  defect  that  Christi- 
anity does  not  tend  to  remove,  or  a  single  excellence  which  it  does 
not  tend  to  heighten.  As  far  as  Christianity  has  been  wrought  into 
the  texture  of  society,  so  far  do  we  find  civilization  to  be  advanced, 
and  where  we  find  that  advance  incomplete,  it  can  be  explained  by 
the  imperfect  adoption  of  Christianity. 

Now  why  are  not  these  things  true  of  other  lands?  Why  has 
civilization  been  stationary  or  retrograde,  wherever  it  has  been  dis- 
connected with  Christianity?  The  same  blue  sky  hangs  in  its  azure 
beauty  over  the  iEgean  and  the  Adriatic  that  gilded  the  glory  of 
Augustus  and  the  splendor  of  Pericles;  the  same  hoary  Lebanon 
lifts  its  giant  brow  to  heaven  that  shadowed  the  queenly  Palmyra, 
and  the  gorgeous  Heliopolis;  the  same  bright  sun  is  mirrored  forth 


21 

from  the  flashing  Euphrates,  that  crowned  with  its  coronal  of  glory 
the  lofty  turrets  of  Nineveh,  and  the  glittering  battlements  of  Baby- 
lon ;  the  same  old  Nile  pours  its  fertilizing  tide,  in  grandeur  and 
mystery  along,  that  carried  the  barges  of  Cleopatra  and  the  galleys 
of  Sesostris ;  but  all  that  remains  of  the  glory  that  once  encircled 
these  storied  spots  are  the  crumbling  arch,  the  broken  columns,  the 
fissured  wall,  the  mournful  signature  of  time  in  the  handwriting  of 
death.  Why  have  Turkey,  Persia,  Syria,  and  the  sunny  climes  of 
the  east,  with  the  finest  harbors,  the  richest  soils,  the  balmiest 
climates,  and  the  most  varied  -products  in  the  world,  been  left  to 
such  wide-spread  barrenness  and  desolation,  while  the  cold  and 
misty  islands  of  Britain,  and  the  ice  and  granite-bound  land  of  the 
Pilgrims,  have  fostered  and  produced  the  greenest  and  palmiest 
growth  of  civilization  that  has  ever  blessed  the  world  ?  The 
answer  must  be,  that  the  one  possessed  Christianity,  while  the 
others  did  not;  the  one  possessed  a  religion  that  promoted  tempe- 
rance, industry, honesty,  justice  and  energy  of  character,  while  the 
others  possessed  a  religion  that  was  either  powerless  to  correct  the 
deadly  evils  of  their  social  state,  or  if  affecting  it  at  all,  making  a 
nation  of  sensualists,  of  tyrants  and  of  slaves. 

When  therefore  we  look  at  the  nature  of  Christianity ;  that  there 
is  not  an  element  of  social  prosperity  which  it  does  not  directly  or 
indirectly  foster;  that  there  is  not  a  single  bane  of  national  or  indi- 
vidual weal,  that  it  does  not  discourage;  that  it  brings  to  the  work 
of  fostering  the  one,  and  destroying  the  other,  an  influence  mightier 
than  the  shifting  expedients  of  the  mere  politician,  or  the  blustering 
bravado  of  the  mere  warrior ;  that  it  enforces  its  salutary  com- 
mands and  restrictions  with  sanctions  the  most  tremendous  and 
motives  that  loom  up  in  their  trenchant  and  terrible  might  from 
the  dark  abysses  of  eternity ;  that  it  possessed  the  very  agencies 
adapted  to  counteract  the  causes  of  the  downfall  of  the  Roman 
empire ;  that  in  point  of  fact  these  causes  were  so  counteracted,  that 
its  influence  was  eminently  salutary  and  conservative  during  the 
different  periods  of  the  history  of  modern  civilization  ;  that  like  Ceres 
the  grass  has  grown  greener  under  its  footsteps,  until  now  the  nations 
that  enjoy  its  influence  in  anything  like  fullness,  are  like  the  land 
of  Goshen  mantled  with  lieht,  while  others  are  shrouded  in  dark- 


2S 

ness  ;  or,  like  Gideon's  fleece,  are  visited  with  the  dews  of  prosperity, 
while  others  are  cursed  with  aridity  and  death  ;  and  when  we  look 
in  vain  for  any  other  cause  to  explain  this  marked  distinction,  we 
are  warranted  to  conclude  that  Christianity  is  the  grand  agent  ap- 
pointed by  the  Ruler  of  nations  for  the  renovation  of  the  world  in 
time  as  well  as  in  eternity ;  that  it  is  the  grand  and  prime  element 
of  efficiency  in  modern  civilization,  and  that  the  nation  which  pos- 
sesses it  in  its  purity  has  a  talisman  of  safety  more  potent  than  the 
Ancilian  shield  of  Rome,  or  the  Palladian  image  of  Troy;  a  protec- 
tion more  impregnable  than  the  wooden  walls  of  Athens,  or  the 
rocky  barriers  of  Petra ;  a  defence  more  invincible  than  girdling 
navies  and  bristling  battalions;  for  it  will  have  the  wall  of  fire  and 
munition  of  rocks,  the  protecting  shield  of  Almightiness,  and  the 
defence  of  that  red  right  arm  that  wields  the  thunder  and  upholds 
the  world. 

If  this  course  of  reasoning  be  correct,  how  magnificent  is  the 
prospect  that  opens  to  our  country,  if  her  sons  shall  be  true  at  once 
to  God  and  their  native  land.  Let  this  pure  and  powerful  principle 
of  civilization  be  diffused  through  our  vast  and  growing  Republic, 
and  who  shall  cast  the  horoscope  of  its  greatness?  The  living  tide 
of  population  shall  swell  and  roll  until  it  meets  the  waves  of  the 
broad  Pacific ;  but  instead  of  the  clangor  of  war,  and  the  gleaming 
of  arms,  there  shall  rise  to  heaven  but  the  busy  hum  of  industry 
and  the  waving  richness  of  plenty;  the  broad  Alleghanies  shall 
answer  to  the  snowy  Cordilleras  in  accents  of  peace  and  gladness: 
while  from  the  foam  and  thunder  of  Niagara  to  where  the  father 
of  waters  rolls  his  mighty  tide  beneath  a  tropical  sun,  from  every 
templed  hill  and  every  teeming  valley  there  shall  rise  the  grateful 
hymn  of  millions  of  free  and  faithful  hearts, 

God  of  stillness  !     God  of  motion  ! 
Of  the  rainbow,  and  the  ocean; 
God  of  mountain,  rock  and  river, 
Blessed  be  thy  name  forever  ! 

Nor  shall  this  be  the  only  spectacle  of  grandeur  and  beauty  to 
stand  as  a  monument  of  the  social  influence  of  Christianity.  There 
comes  a  time  when  the  ancient  fetters  and  manacles  that  so  long 
have  bound  scarred  and  hoary  Europe,  shall  be  before  its  awakened 


29 

might  like  flax  to  the  flame  ;  when  the  silent  and  petrified  despot- 
isms of  Asia  shall  be  shivered  in  pieces  before  the  resistless  growth 
of  the  emancipating  spirit  of  the  gospel;  and  the  dark  jangles 
and  deserts  of  Africa  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  with  a  richer  and 
brighter  garniture  of  beauty  than  ever  greeted  her  radiant  skies; 
when,  instead  of  the  dreary  stillness  and  monotony  of  the  vast  and 
slumbering  east,  there  shall  be  the  cheerful  hum  of  commerce  and 
industry,  the  smiling  fields  and  happy  homes  of  honest  labor,  and 
the  freedom  and  security  of  just  and  powerful  laws  ;  instead  of  the 
tinkling  camel's  bell  and  the  weary  undulations  of  the  tardy  cara- 
van, there  shall  be  the  rattling  engine  and  the  rushing  boat;  and 
instead  of  the  bristling  pagoda,  the  towering  minaret,  or  the  gloomy 
temple,  there  shall  be  the  thronged  houses  of  God,  and  the  thronged 
halls  of  science,  the  tall  spire  of  the  village  church,  and  the  beaten 
play-ground  of  the  village  school-house.  The  turbaned  Turk  shall 
awake  from  his  sullen  dream  of  sensuality  and  sloth,  and  tearing 
from  his  banner  the  gleaming  crescent,  and  sheathing  the  bloody 
yataghan,  shall  bow  meekly  at  the  foot  of  the  cross.  The  wild  Cos- 
sack and  the  shivering  Siberian  shall  learn  to  serve  a  milder  and 
yet  a  mightier  monarch  than  the  haughty  autocrat.  The  besotted 
Hindoo  and  the  fierce  Malay  shall  dash  to  the  earth  the  hideous 
symbols  of  a  degrading  superstition,  and  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  re- 
newed  humanity.  The  miserable  Caffre  and  the  reeking  Hottentot 
shall  come  forth  from  their  squalid  filth  and  wretchedness,  and  sit 
down  clothed  and  in  their  right  mind  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  The 
wild  Arab  and  the  untamed  Tartar,  as  they  scour  their  illimitable 
deserts,  shall  rein  in  their  flying  barbs,  to  catch  the  sounds  of  these 
wondrous  tidings.  And  the  Christian  sailor,  as  he  floats  over  the 
glassy  seas,  and  beneath  the  burnished  skies  of  another  hemisphere, 
shall  see  rising  above  the  queenly  palm  and  the  spreading  banian 
the  glittering  spires  of  a  pure  faith,  and  hear  borne  on  the  spicy 
gale  that  comes  breathing  its  strange  fragrance  around  his  brow, 
the  sound  of  the  church-going  bell,  and  the  rich  melody  of  strains 
that  awake  the  memories  of  forgotten  years,  and  bring  back  the 
sweet  scenes  of  homes  that  lie  far  away  over  the  blue  waves  of  the 
ocean.  The  sword  shall  no  more  be  stained  with  the  blood  of  the 
innocent  and  helpless;  the  green  earth  shall  no  longer  be  reddened 


30 

with  the  carnage  of  the  battle-field  ;  the  wild  whirlpool  of  anarchy 
and  revolution  shall  no  more  fling  up  to  heaven  its  bloody  and 
hellish  spray  ;  the  groan  of  the  oppressed  and  the  moaning  cry  of 
the  helpless,  shall  be  heard  no  more ;  but  the  lofty  dreamings  of 
Plato ;  the  exulting  strains  of  Virgil;  the  weird  numbers  of  the  Sybil, 
and  higher  and  truer  still  the  rapt  visions  of  Isaiah,  and  the  mystic 
imagery  of  the  lone  exile  of  Patmos,  and  the  longing,  waiting,  sor- 
rowing hopes  of  a  weary  and  groaning  creation^  shall  be  fully  em- 
bodied in  the  calm,  peaceful,  hallowed  and  bloodless  scenes  of  the 
Sabbath  of  the  world. 

Gentlemen  of  the  General  Union  Philosophical  Society,  I  have 
thus  endeavored,  at  the  risk  of  perhaps  a  slight  departure  from  the 
ordinary  range  of  such  addresses  as  the  present,  to  set  before  you  a 
theme  that  I  have  attempted  to  show  is  of  vital  interest  to  the  age 
in  which  we  live ;  a  theme  the  importance  of  which  was  felt  in  other 
times  more  deeply  than  it  is  now  ;  and  the  felt  importance  of  which 
was  the  living  principle  of  energy  in  a  Cromwell,  a  Hampden,  a 
Milton,  and  some  of  the  mightiest  spirits  that  have  ever  been  re- 
vealed inhistory,and  yet  a  theme  in  which  our  age  has  little  practical 
faith.  But  this  phase  of  the  human  mind  is  rapidly  changing.  The 
frigid  and  skeptical  era  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  and  first 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  passing  away,  and  in  its  stead  is 
coming  an  era  of  faith.  The  cold,  sneering,  Satanic  school  of  litera- 
ture, that  held  its  sway  twenty-five  years  ago,  whose  flippant  philo- 
sophy could  admit  nothing  that  it  could  not  comprehend, and  compre- 
hend nothing  deeper  than  itself,  is  giving  place  to  a  tone  at  least  of 
respectful  inquiry,  if  not  of  earnest  belief;  to  a  deeper  philosophy, 
and  a  loftier  literature.  A  Carlyle,  a  Macaulay,  an  Arnold  and  a 
Guizot,  and  men  who  can  see  "  God  in  history,"  are  taking  the  place 
of  a  Hume,  a  Gibbon,  a  Byron,  a  Voltaire  and  others,  to  whom  re- 
ligion was  either  a  womanish  weakness  or  an  impious  imposture.  At 
this  moment  there  is  scarcely  a  nation  in  Europe  whose  councils  are 
not  more  profoundly  moved  by  religious  questions  than  they  ever 
have  been  since  the  treaty  of  Westphalia.  And  this  is  but  the  first 
note  of  preparation  for  still  profounder  movements.  The  same 
prophetic  chart  that  pictures  forth  in  its  bold  and  beautiful  imagery, 
the  sabbatic  scenes  of  the  future   triumphs  of  Christianity,  also 


31 

assures  us  that  this  triumph  will  be  neither  a  silent  nor  perhaps 
a  bloodless  one,  and  that  the  powers  that  have  so  long  ruled  the 
ascendant,  will  not  yield  their  iron  grasp  on  humanity,  without  a 
fierce  and  terrible  struggle.  Hence  there  comes  also,  a  day  that 
has  loomed  in  its  dark  and  terrific  grandeur  to  the  eye  of  the  pro- 
phetic seer  at  every  point  of  the  past ;  when  the  embattled  hosts 
of  truth  and  falsehood  shall  be  marshaled  for  a  final  and  deadly 
conflict ;  when  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  of  society  shall  be 
broken  up,  and  the  rushing  surge  of  this  flood-tide  of  the  world 
shall  sweep  away  the  hoary  and  time-worn  institutions  of  the  past, 
like  foam  on  the  cataract's  plunge ;  when  there  shall  be  "signs  in 
the  sun,  and  the  moon  and  the  stars,  on  the  earth,  distress  of  nations 
and  perplexity,  the  sea  and  the  waves  roaring,  and  men's  hearts 
failing  them  for  fear  and  for  looking  after  the  things  that  are  to  come 
upon  the  earth ;"  and  the  billows  of  this  mighty  commotion  shall 
heave  and  dash  against  every  fabric  in  which  human  hopes  are 
garnered.  For  these  dread  scenes  are  the  elements  of  collision 
silently  and  swiftly  preparing.  We  may  dream,  and  doubt,  and 
laugh  and  deride,  but  we  stay  not  the  footsteps  of  destiny.  We 
must  act  our  part  in  these  scenes,  sowing  the  seed  of  dragon's  teeth, 
or  reaping  the  fell  harvest,  whether  we  will  or  not :  sharing  in  the 
triumph  as  a  crowned  and  laureled  conqueror,  or  as  a  chained  and 
vanquished  captive,  bound  ignobly  at  the  wheels  of  the  triumphal 
car  of  victory. 

A  few  short  years  of  preparation,  and  those  of  you  who  are  not 
destined  to  sleep  in  an  early  grave,  will  go  forth  to  do  your  task  in 
this  mighty  work.  Hasten  not  unduly  to  rush  forth  into  the  strife, 
for  remember  that  he  who  would  be  eminently  useful  to  his  race, 
must  spend  the  early  part  of  his  career  in  toilsome  obscurity.  But 
when  you  leave  these  hallowed  scenes  of  seclusion  and  study  for 
the  great  world  beyond  you,  go  forth  feeling  that  life  is  an  earnest 
thing,  and  that  he  must  be  earnest  who  would  grapple  with  its 
mysteries.  Go  forth,  not  to  fritter  away  your  energies  in  ignoble 
indolence ;  not  to  herd  with  that  degraded  and  melancholy  few 
whose  sole  ambition  seems  to  be,  to  make  a  nature,  created  a  little 
lower  than  the  angel,  become  a  little  lower  than  the  brute;  not  to 


sell  yourselves  as  the  drudges  and  bond-slaves  of  mammon,  or  to 
be  the  obsequious  tools  of  designing  demagogues ;  but  to  throw 
yourselves  in  the  gap  that  is  yet  to  open ;  to  stand  in  the  Thermo- 
pylae of  history  that  is  coming;  to  do  your  part  in  the  great  work 
of  the  world's  civilization  by  seeking  its  Christianization.  Shallow- 
ness may  call  this  cant,  or  flippancy  superstition,  infidelity  may  rail 
at  it  as  bigotry,  and  imbecility  as  chimera,  but  the  voice  of  the 
past  and  the  voice  of  the  future  alike  proclaim  it  the  noblest  cause 
in  which  to  live,  and  the  noblest  cause  for  which  to  die.  Trials 
you  may  meet,  toils  you  may  encounter,  enemies  you  may  arouse, 
calumny  you  may  provoke,  tears  you  may  shed,  and  disappoint- 
ments you  may  feel ;  but  remember  that 

"The  soul  of  man 
Createth  its  own  destiny  of  power; 
And  as  the  trial  is  intenser  here, 
His  being  hath  a  nobler  strength  in  heaven. 
What  is  its  earthly  victory  ?     Press  on ! 
For  it  hath  tempted  angels.    Yet  press  on ! 
And  from  the  eyrie  of  your  eagle-thought, 
Ye  shall  look  down  on  monarchs.    0  press  on ! 
For  the  high  ones  and  powerful  shall  come 
To  do  you  reverence;  and  the  beautiful 
Will  know  the  purer  language  of  your  brow, 
And  read  it  like  a  talisman  of  love  ! 
Press  on !  for  it  is  godlike  to  unloose 
The  spirit  and  forget  yourself  in  thought ; 
Bending  a  pinion  for  the  deeper  sky, 
And  in  the  very  fetters  of  your  flesh 
Mating  with  the  pure  essences  of  heaven  ! 
Press  on !  '  for  in  the  grave,  there  is  no  work 
And  no  device.'     Press  on!  while  yet  ye  may  !" — 

And  though  your  names  may  never  gild  the  flaunting  page  of 
history,  or  your  record  be  engraved  on  the  monumental  marble  to 
mark  the  spot  that  shrines  your  dust,  yet  you  shall  have  a  more 
enduring  memorial  in  the  glad  hearts  you  have  cherished,  and  the 
sad  hearts  you  have  cheered,  and  more  enduring  still  in  that  dread 
and  awful  scroll  whose  words  of  flame  have  been  written  by  the 
finger  of  the  Almighty  ;  whose  seals  shall  be  opened  in  the  terrific 
scenes  of  the  judgment,  and  whose  pages  shall  be  unfolded  in  the 
retributions  of  eternity. 


05-12-05  32180     MS 


LB2325  .L77 

Obituary  addresses  delivered  on  the 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1       1    1012  00085  2162 


